Fake cop sentenced to 4 years for raping international student

Court gavel with a statue of Lady Justice in the background - Credit: - License: DepositPhotos Crime Friday, 9 October 2026 - 09:09

The court in The Hague sentenced a 33-year-old man to four years in prison for posing as a cop and raping an international student in her student room in The Hague. The court also convicted him of showing his genitals and masturbating in the elevators and hallways of two other student complexes.

Ghalied A. showed up at the South Korean student’s room in the middle of the night on September 12, 2024. He said he was a police officer and received a tip that she had drugs in her room. He said he needed to search her room. Having been in the Netherlands for only a month, she was unfamiliar with the rules and procedures in here and let the man in.

The young woman said that A. forced her to stand completely naked against the wall and perform several squats. He then penetrated her with his fingers.

Immediately after this assault, the young woman locked herself in the bathroom and called the emergency services. “Officers arriving at the scene found her naked and weeping uncontrollably,” the court said.

A. claimed that he struck up a conversation with the victim outside her room and she invited him inside. According to him, they were kissing, and he touched her, but left when she suddenly changed her mind.

The court believed the student over A. “The court finds the victim’s statements to be concrete, detailed, consistent, and authentic. Her accounts are corroborated by the observations of the officers who arrived at the scene,” the court said.

A few months after the rape, A. also tried the same method at the same student complex again. Camera footage shows him posing as a police officer and ringing various doorbells. No one let him in.

According to the court, A. acted in a devious manner and humiliated the victim. “After the incident, she was afraid to re-enter her home,” the court said. “She had dreamed of studying in Europe her entire life. Now that this has happened to her, she has come to loathe the Netherlands so much that she immediately returned to her home country.”

The court also convicted A. of indecent exposure and public masturbation at two other student complexes on July 3, 2024, and June 18, 2025.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had recommended five years in prison plus institutionalized psychiatric treatment against A. The court decided against imposing treatment because the man refused to cooperate with a psychological assessment. The judge did impose a behavioral intervention order “enabling long-term, intensive supervision following his detention.”